#affiliation: civilian.

[devilsgatewayhq]

Name: Ian Malik Age: 38 Time living in Tonopah: 1 year Occupation: General Surgeon Gang Affiliation: Not Affiliated Neighborhood: Downtown Face Claim: Rahul Kohli

Biography (TW: Domestic abuse):

A picture perfect family never seemed to be in the cards for Ian Malik, with a father who was more concerned with keeping his knuckles nicely bruised and his family ‘in line’. Born to two first-generation immigrants from northwestern India, the young boy could never remember a time when their wasn't conflict in their household, when they weren't struggling to make ends meet. One might never know the trauma that the young boy with the dark eyes endured as a child, equipped with a boyish charm and the silver tongue to match, because practice always makes perfect-- and once Riya Malik decided enough was enough, he had plenty of time to practice. Once the divorce was finalized, Riya moved her and the kids from the Midwest to San Diego, determined to start a new life. They didn’t have much money, but they had each other, and that was more than enough at the time.

Going into medicine was the obvious choice for Ian, not only due to his love of science but also for the income it was guaranteed to bring. A couple of student loans later and he was off to UCLA for undergrad followed by Stanford for medicals school. It wasn’t easy, but the male was determined enough to make it work, and soon an internship and residency followed. Riya ended up remarrying only a few years later to a wonderful man and moved to a small town in Nevada while Ian began working as a General Surgeon at one of the local hospitals.

With all that money coming in, the male was able to pay off his student loans and send money regularly to his mom and sister, while also being able to finally settle down and make a life for himself. However, just because things appear great on paper doesn't mean it carries over into real life, and Ian began to figure that out the hard way after entering his first long-term relationship. His own issues, born from the struggles he faced as a child, were never fully addressed, and as a result filtered into his partnership over the years they were together. Ultimately, this led to increased strife, fighting, the straw that broke the camel's back being when he was cheated on. With his trust now severed, paper thin ego ripped to shreds, they decided to end things.

Change was desperately needed -- or, at the very least, a drastic shift to once again run away from his problems. On the heels of heartbreak, Ian decided to leave his comfortable California lifestyle behind and relocate to the town Riya had settled in over the last decade. Ian isn’t sure how long he plans on staying in Tonopah, but what he does know for sure is that he’ll be there for as long as he needs to.

Headcanons:

Ian is very talkative, friendly, affable, but it's mostly bravado to hide how desperately insecure he is. One would really have to reason to suspect this, however, unless they got close enough to see all the old, faded scars on his torso.

He hasn’t had any contact with his father since his parents divorced and prefers to keep it that way.

Though he makes a good living as a surgeon, Ian lives incredibly frugally so that he can tend to himself or his family in case of emergency.

Very, very, very clean, almost obsessively so. His home growing up was always in some sort of disarray which has made him very particular about his own set up. 

Although he loves kids, he doesn’t want any of his own. Would much rather be a cool uncle.

Big, big, big LA Dodgers fan (and baseball fan in general)

Dates around often, says that he wants a relationship but is actually terrified of that concept. So, he'll find issues in pretty much anyone he goes out with. 

[odinsblog]

Tankies: Hamas raping women and murdering children the elderly and disabled people is okay because something something communism ☭

Also tankies: Russia mass raping women and bombing hospitals and civilians in predominantly Jewish Ukrainian cities is okay because something something communism ☭

[byler-alarmist]

If your support of Palestine includes apologizing for SA on the part of Hamas, you'd better block me before I come for your ass

[prvtocol]

𝓓𝓲𝓻𝓮𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓻 𝓑𝓻𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓮 𝓛𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓻𝔂, 𝒦𝒾𝓇𝑜𝓈𝒽𝒾 𝒮𝒸𝒶𝓃 [ Ⓒ ]

[tikkunolamresistance]

WAYS TO SUPPORT GAZA:

Care for Gaza is a legitimate non-profit, non-governmental charity currently supplying aid to Palestinians by creating food packages and giving cash to civilians in need. We are not affiliated with them, but want to share their tremendous work in aiding Palestinians in Gaza right now:

A direct link to their X acount:

https://x.com/careforgaza?s=21

GOFUNDME:

You can find their godundme linked here, which details what their charity does for Palestinians in need, how the process works and evidence of their donations—

Please reblog and help Palestinians who need it today!

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Palestinian Youth Movement, which has many chapters and affiliated groups in throughout Canada, decries the terrorist attacks on Yemen by the U.S. and U.K., which Canada has 'provided support' for (Jan 11th 2024). They point out that these attacks coincide with the ICJ hearing against Israel for its genocide, and that these governemnts are mobilizing their ressources to commit terrorist acts against Yemeni civilians rather than to serve their own citizens.

Numerous pro-Palestinian organizations in Canada have already cosigned this statement.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle tonight are lambasting the Biden administration for not getting Congressional approval before moving ahead with military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.[...]

“The President needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another middle east conflict. That is Article I of the Constitution. I will stand up for that regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is in the White House,” posted California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna on X, just as news was breaking that the strikes were in progress. Some 30 minutes earlier, there were reports that Congressional leaders were given a heads up that the strikes were a go.

“Only Congress has the power to declare war,” posted Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. “I have to give credit to @RepRoKhanna here for sticking to his principles, as very few are willing to make this statement while their party is in the White House.”[...]

“@POTUS is violating Article I of the Constitution by carrying out airstrikes in Yemen without congressional approval,” charged Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib. “The American people are tired of endless war.” Democratic Reps. Cori Bush, Val Hoyle, Mark Pocan, and Pramila Jayapal weighed in similarly as of 9 p.m. tonight.

On the Republican side, Sen. Mike Lee, who has often crossed the aisle on war powers issues, also gave Khanna a boost. “The Constitution matters, regardless of party affiliation.”

"The Constitution is clear, only Congress has the power to declare war. President Biden must come to Congress and ask us to authorize this act of war," posted Florida Republican Rep. Anna Luna.[...]

“These attacks have endangered U.S. personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardized trade, and threatened freedom of navigation,” Biden said. “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”

The Houthis have said they would continue the attacks until “crimes in Gaza stop and food, medicines and fuel are allowed to reach its besieged population.” The Biden administration, which has not supported a ceasefire in Gaza, said it would hit back hard if the Houthis did not stand down. After a particularly heavy volley of drones and rockets on Tuesday, the administration made its move.

This has a lot of analysts worried about escalation — something the Biden administration said it didn't want. "If the objective is to stop Houthi attacks without escalating matters toward a full war, then bombing them has proven quite inefficient in the past. Just ask the the Saudis," said the Quincy Institute's Trita Parsi, on X, referring to the Yemen civil war in which the Houthis gained major victories despite routine missile bombardments from U.S.-backed Saudi Arabia.

"Moreover, bombing them very likely will escalate matters, which means that not only will the attacks not be stopped, but the broader war that Biden [allegedly] seeks to prevent will likely become a reality."

12 Jan 24

[maykitz]

when news reports love to stress that the civilian death toll is >30.000 people according to hamas-run government departments but mention no source or affiliation for any other claims it's always like, right, thank you for you steadfast journalistic integrity and independence. i would have hated to let hamas fool me into believing that extensively dropping tens of thousands of bombs on residential areas and schools and hospitals could possibly kill an immense number of people. in reality they're probably fine. i forget how precise explosives are. if only we had trustworthy sources. when i see photos of all-male troops of soldiers triumphantly posing with women's underwear in the rubble of an apartment building i want to make sure i don't accidentally assume they rape and murder just because it's the only sensible explanation. we must be ever vigilant to nefarious hamas manipulations such as basic common sense conclusions

[workersolidarity]

[ 📸 📹 Footage shows scenes of massive destruction everywhere to be seen after the withdrawal of Zionist forces in Hamad Town, a city in the Khan Yunis governate, in the southern Gaza Strip, while photos show the bodies of the dead resulting from IOF airstrikes targeting civilian homes in Deir al-Balah overnight, in the central Gaza Strip.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

HAMAD TOWN IN KHAN YUNIS COMPLETELY FLATTENED BY ZIONIST FORCES, DOZENS KILLED ON DAY 159 OF ISRAEL'S GENOCIDE

On the 159th day of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, and on the second day of Ramadan, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 10 massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 88 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and wounded another 135 others over the previous 24-hours.

In a highly illegal attack on the sovereign state of Lebanon, a Zionist raid targeting a civilian vehicle near the Al-Hosh Junction in the city of Tyre killed the Hamas political leader Hadi Mustafa, from the Rashidiya Camp, and wounded three other Lebanese civilians.

According to Lebanese media, Zionist artillery also fired on the Marjayoun Plain while Israeli military and reconnaissance aircraft operated in Lebanese airspace, with the local government calling on the International community to put a stop to Israeli strikes within its borders.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, Zionist artillery forces fired four shells towards the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital, affiliated with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, killing at least five civilians, including children, and wounding several others.

Similarly, Israeli warplanes targeted with airstrikes the civilian neighborhoods of Al-Daraj and Al-Zaytoun in Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of 15 Palestinians, including two women and at least seven children, while wounding dozens of others.

According to reports on the bombings, occupation warplanes bombarded a civilian home in the Al-Daraj neighborhood which killed seven civilians, including three children and wounded several others.

Later, a second strike targeting the Azzam family home in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, killed no less than eight civilians, including four children and two women, with a number of others wounded as well.

Israeli occupation aircraft also bombarded the Lulu family home in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, killing two Palestinian civilians and wounding four children as a result.

IOF airstrikes and artillery fire also concentrated on the central Gaza Strip, with occupation forces targeting four civilian homes in the city of Deir al-Balah overnight.

In the first attack, Zionist air forces bombarded the Al-Atrash family home in Deir al-Balah, killing at least 11 civilians, most of whom were women and children, and wounding dozens of others.

Subsequently, IOF fighter jets bombed the Al-Qudra family home, resulting in the tragic deaths of 11 additional Palestinians, while a strike targeting the Abu Sanjar family home killed at least 7 civilians.

In another strike, occupation forces targeted the Al-Yazuri family home, also in Deir al-Balah, leading to 25 civilians killed or missing under the rubble of their home.

In another Zionist atrocity, the Palestinian fisherman's syndicate announced the horrific murder of two of its members, Muhammad and Youssef Adel al-Sayyid Abu Riyala, after being targeted by occupation gunboats while fishing off the coast of Al-Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, known locally as the Nuseirat Sea.

Moving towards the Southern Gaza Strip, IOF artillery shelling concentrated near Hamad Town, in the Khan Yunis governate, where violent clashes with Resistance forces led several Israeli aircraft to land in the area to transport wounded Zionist soldiers for medical care.

Local Paramedic personnel also transported the body of martyr Haitham Muhammad Deeb Suwaidan (35yo) from Khan Yunis to Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah.

Additionally, IOF soldiers detonated several residential homes east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

As a result of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the infinitely rising death toll stemming from Israeli attacks now exceeds 31'272 civilians killed, more than 25'000 of which being women and children according to the United States Pentagon, and wounding another 73'024 others since the current round of Israeli aggression began on October 7th, 2023.

#source1

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#photosource

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[sayruq]

Human heads eaten by crows, unidentified and decomposing body parts, and hundreds of corpses piled up and buried in mass graves are all that remained of the victims of the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital. The grim scene was something out of a dystopian movie, the product of the two-week siege of Gaza’s largest hospital that ended in its total destruction. Following the completion of al-Shifa’s decimation, the Israeli army announced that it had been one of the most successful operations since the start of the war, claiming that it had arrested hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the medical compound. But the question that no one seemed to ask is how such a massive number of so-called “operatives” from Hamas and PIJ had gathered at al-Shifa with the full knowledge that the place had already been combed by the army once before and that Gaza City had been occupied by the army ever since.

One young man who managed to escape the hospital mere moments before the army invasion began said that there had indeed been hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated employees in the hospital, but none of them were military operatives. They were workers in the Gaza government’s civil branch, including Civil Defense crews, the police force, the internal security services, interior ministry employees, and employees of other branches of the local government. All of them had gathered to receive their governmental salaries at al-Shifa, given that it was one of the few remaining places that was supposed to be relatively safe from the fighting

When everyone left the buildings, the army began to separate the crowds of people into groups, making each group wear differently-colored plastic bracelets. The soldiers told them that these bracelets were connected to a system that alerts snipers to their movements. They were divided into two colors: yellow, which was attached to hospital staff and whoever the army considered civilians, and red, which was given to people who could not move on their own, such as patients, the injured, amputees, or people with broken limbs. The army also gathered people who were suspected of belonging to Hamas or the PIJ. They were not given bracelets but were separated from the injured and hospital staff, who were sent to a different building. A third much larger group was ordered to leave the hospital entirely — thousands of displaced persons who had been sheltering in the compound, in addition to some members of the hospital staff. Some of the staff members, including doctors, refused to leave. When they refused the army’s orders, they were executed immediately and without argument. The army then brought out a huge number of men from the group of suspected Hamas and PIJ members and employees, gathering them in the center of the courtyard. It then proceeded to execute them, one after the other. When the slaughter was done, army bulldozers piled up their corpses in the dozens, dragging them through the sand and burying them. As this was ongoing, other soldiers stormed various buildings in the compound in search of people who had refused to evacuate when the initial order was given. They killed anyone they found, regarding them as suspects.

This is a long article but I suggest you read the whole thing.

[devilsgatewayhq]

Name: Penelope Beaumont Age: 48 Time living in Tonopah: Native who moved away at 15, only recently returned Occupation: Owner of Sunset Valley Bed & Breakfast Gang Affiliation: None Neighborhood: Springate Crossings Face Claim: Nadine Velazquez

Biography (TW: Child death, cancer, religious trauma):

Penelope wasn't the first child born into the Valdez family. She had had an older brother, one whom she'd never met before because he died at the age of two when he accidentally drowned in a pool while unattended. The loss devastated Rodrigo and Luisa; they were convinced that God was punishing them. It took many years of repenting and pious observation within the local church before they would try again, not wanting to risk His wrath. When their daughter came into their lives, they were determined to see her grow to adulthood in adherence to God's plan, even if it meant controlling her every move and watching her like a hawk. Unfortunately for them, the young girl was spirited and adventurous. She was never satisfied with the simple, devout life her parents wanted her to live, leading her to experiencing many a childhood and teenage joy behind their backs with her closest friend. This became especially true after her parents met him and they reacted poorly, citing their religious beliefs for why they didn't want her to spend time around 'that boy' for fear she'd be condemned along with him. Penelope never believed that, though. How could she when he was one of the kindest and most welcoming people she'd ever met? As the pair grew closer and feelings began to develop, they inevitably began to explore with one another, which resulted in an unexpected pregnancy at 15. Penelope's parents were incensed. With very little understanding or empathy on their parts -- after all, how was she expected to know better when they had never had the sex talk with her? -- they uprooted their lives in Tonopah Valley and moved as far away as possible, landing in the suburbs of New York City. Although they supported her throughout her pregnancy financially and put a roof over her head, the emotional toll their constant berating and religious guilt took on Penelope led her to the decision to go no contact as soon as she was old enough to get out from under them, changing her last name in the process. She decided she would rather raise her daughter on her own than to be subject to their condemnation. It was never easy, but the modest life she had built for the two of them was more than enough for her. She ensured Mikayla got everything she could ever need to grow into a well-rounded adult by sacrificing meals when there was only enough food for one, losing sleep to fulfill class assignments at the local community college to get her associates degree, and working herself to the bone by taking on three separate jobs to make ends meet. It wasn't until she collapsed at work one day that she even realized the fatigue and weight loss she'd been experiencing weren't a result of her lifestyle. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma at the age of 32. The voices of her parents infiltrated her mind, insisting this was because of the sinful life she'd led. The doctors assured her the survival rate for this form of cancer was higher than others, and she began treatment soon after, though she had no idea how she was going to pay for it. Mikayla began working to help supplement the loss of income from Penelope needing to take time off from her own, and somehow, they managed. After years of treatment and follow-up visits, Penelope was officially declared to be in remission. When they were sure the side effects of the chemotherapy wouldn't hinder her from functioning on her own, she insisted Mikayla go to college like she had always talked about as a child. With no real reason to stay in New York City, she's decided to make the move back to her hometown and finally invest in herself, and maybe even track down the man who had had such an impact on her life and didn't even know it.

Headcanons:

She has an associate's degree in Business Administration. She got this while taking night classes when Mikayla was younger.

She hasn't spoken to her parents since she was 18. They've attempted to reach out to her in various ways in an attempt to be a part of Mikayla's life, but she's refused to let them indoctrinate her daughter in the way they'd attempted to do with her.

When Penelope was diagnosed, she finally decided to look her ex up online to reach out to him on the off chance she didn't survive through treatments. She decided against reconnecting, though, so as not to complicate his life unnecessarily.

[moonlayl]

“Human shields” “affiliated with Hamas” “self defence” “tunnels”

It’s the same recycled arguments without ever addressing the actual issue at hand and with no real basis in reality or truth and no evidence.

Everyone who sees through their lies, questions them, criticizes them, so much as thinks negatively about them, is now “Hamas”.

Okay buddy.

These are the same people who started saying that the UN workers who were trying to help out in the border (and got murdered by them…more than 100 UN worker’s have been killed) are affiliated with Hamas, and that the whole organization was too.

Same thing about every Palestinian journalist documenting what’s going on.

This is the same country that called every Palestinian tho was killed since October 7 a “terrorist” and that “the children of Gaza brought this on themselves”

Keep in mind the legal team used Israel official’s own words against them, camera footage evidence, and even Israeli civilians themselves boosting about the Palestinian deaths, (amongst other things) in court. Like it’s all so very public, yet simply pointing it out (and acknowledging WAR CRIMES) makes you 1) a terrorist and 2) an antisemite. Apparently.

[deafarcher]

Buck sees Clint and is beyond confused as to why the man is out on the West Coast. "Clint?" He calls out, as he walks towards the man. He is still in his gear as he just got back from a call with the rest of the 118.

Clint is in civilian clothes, with no hint of his SHIELD or Avengers affiliations visible.

He smiles as he sees his half brother. No matter the reason why he's out here on the West Coast, it's still nice to see Buck.

"Hey, Buck."

[ebenelephant]

a reminder:

- not all israelis support the IDF's violence

- not all jews support the IDF's violence

- when we criticise israel, we are supposed to be criticising the government and those who individually support the ongoing genocide in gaza

- if you are condemning every single individual in israel, you are an antisemite

- equally, if you are condemning every single individual in gaza for the october attacks, you are an islamophobe

- there is no moral justification for the deaths of 13,000 palestinian children

- there is no moral justification for the 1100+ civilians killed in the october 7th attacks

- if you assume that every jew you come across supports the ongoing actions of the israeli government, you are an antisemite

- you can support palestinian resistance without asserting that hamas are good and blameless

- if you assert that the reason for broadly pro-israel media coverage worldwide is that jews control the media, you are an antisemite

- attacking random jews online with no affiliation to the israeli government will not, shockingly, aid those in gaza

- if you wish to support gaza, there are many resources available to help you donate/protest/petition etc

Edit: some people in the tags and replies have pointed out my misuse of the term 'zionism' as well as parts of this post which implied things that I didn't intend them to. I have edited those bits so that they better reflect what I am trying (but clearly poorly wording) to say.

[communistchilchuck]

Tawfik reached out to me to help spread his fundraiser. He is a Palestinian engineering student urgently raising money to evacuate he and his family from Gaza. He has only raised $3,409 out of his $40,000 goal so far! Please donate and share, and if you can't donate, please still share!

From Tawfik's GFM:

Urgent appeal: Escaping devastation in Gaza - saving a family's hope

Dear merciful souls,

I am Tawfik satoom an engineer, I live in Gaza. I was completing my studies, but unfortunately the unimaginable happened. The war came and took everything from me and my family. I extend my hand to you from the depths of despair that we feel while we are in Gaza in the midst of war. Memories of a life that was once peaceful, full of love and security have been stripped away by the merciless horrors of war. Not only are my possessions lying in ruins, but the pain, agony and humiliation inflicted upon us are beyond the reach of mere words.

Our journey has become a haunting odyssey, and the burden of rebuilding our lives and escaping the darkness prevailing in this war-torn land is insurmountable. As ordinary civilians not affiliated with the conflict, my family and I yearn to...

To be free from this nightmare.

The war destroyed our house, turning it into rubble, and now we find ourselves living in a tent. Life has restricted us greatly, and our only hope is to seek help in escaping this nightmare and making a path towards a decent life.

Now! We only had a tent left.

The harsh truth is that the cost of escaping is staggering - $9,000 per person. For those of us desperately seeking refuge, this amount represents an overwhelming barrier, threatening to imprison us in this suffering.

In our quest for safety and a semblance of normalcy, I turn to you, my fellow humans, for help. Every contribution, whether big or small, is a lifeline that can pull us out of the abyss. Join us in breaking the chains that bind us to this torment.

Be a beacon of hope for Tawfik Satoom and his family. Your support is not just a financial contribution. It is a lifeline to freedom, security and a future free from the horrors of war.

We will use this money to take additional measures to enter Egypt and escape the war.

With the weight of necessity in my heart,

We deserve to live. Tawfik Satoom

[artbyblastweave]

Recently a post has been doing the rounds about military propaganda in the latest COD, yea yeah, sky’s blue, fork in kitchen, et al et al. This got me thinking about the shooters I actually play, and one thing that strikes me about the multiplayer shooters I play is that a lot of them dodge that same major discourse bullet by expressly grounding themselves in amorality and Kafka-esque dysfunction- a structural fingerwag towards their own content, acting as a paradoxical green-light to enjoy the game with no sense of moral injury. And there’s a big example of one that didn’t do this that kinda winds up with egg on its face as a result. 

To start with, I’m thinking about Team Fortress 2. The original Team Fortress, inasmuch as it’s possible for a game where you shoot each other with real firearms to be apolitical, was fairly apolitical. The soldiers had no markers of identity beyond their arbitrary team affiliation; the fighting was over no discernable real-life resource or point of political tension; the environments were decontextualized labs and facilities. It was platonic violence. 

Team Fortress 2 rolls around. Now that the general novelty of a 3d multiplayer class shooter has eroded, development stalls out on the following aesthetic problem; you can’t have semi-realistic militaristic character models rocket-jumping themselves across the map in the early 2000s. The cartoonishness is too dissonant when you’ve got similar semi-realistic militaristic characters in much more “grounded” games. Eventually they resolve this by taking the other tack, leaning into the cartoonishness, crafting character models so completely bombastic and over the top that no action taken in gameplay, no matter how absurd, will ever feel dissonant. This philosophy extends into the map design; the environments are farcical. Military instillations built mere yards from each other, with paper-thin pretenses of being civilian facilities despite the constant gun battles occurring inside. It’s self parody. And when the game extends to the point of having lore and worldbuilding, the idiocy becomes diegetic. This is a conflict fought on the behalf of idiots, by idiots, over idiot-goals, in spaces designed by idiots. It’s completely amoral, but it’s also contained amorality, since the fighting doesn’t spill out of these Helleresque Designated Pointless Fight Zones- and that leaves the mercs sympathetic enough that you can play them as protagonists in stories that take place “off-the-clock” without a ton of tonal dissonance. I can’t stress enough that the TF2 protagonists are amoral PMCs who work for callous megacorps. In a vacuum, this is not a well-regarded Kind Of Guy around here. There is some implementation of this broad concept that would invite a shitload of discourse that I’ve never seen materialize!

A lot of hero-or-character-based multiplayer games do this, abandoning any pretense of player heroism or productivity in the conceit in a way that shields them from a lot of moral and logical criticisms. Apex Legends and Monday Night Combat are explicitly in-universe bloodsports. Atlas Reactor and Rogue Company are cyberpunk corp-on-corp warfare. Dirty Bomb is about loosely affiliated mercenaries picking over the remains of an evacuated city. I think that Valorant is PMCs in a resource war (Not completely sure on this one.) The never-released Battlecry was expressly tied to actual nation-states, an alternate history where great powers fight wars via singularly-powerful champions instead of via traditional warfare. And in Battleborn the PCs were a hastily-assembled coalition of smaller hastily-assembled coalitions, which means that it makes perfect sense that any combination of these people might be fighting alongside or against each other, at any given time.

Here we see commonalities. Amoral participants. Larger governing bodies delineating clear fight zones centered on specific, if deliberately silly or petty, goals. Most crucially, PCs that are very loosely affiliated with each other, such that you’d see them in different configurations, fight to fight, day to day, as they’re contracted or shuffled around by the powers that be.

You know a game that doesn’t do any of this? Overwatch. 

Overwatch gets 80% of the way to being a superhero universe; it falls short primarily because Blizzard chose not to explicitly market it as such, but it’s got everything short of the purposeful brand designation- powered heroes, super science, codenames, Faceless Hydraesque terrorist groups with shadowy, powered enforcers. There are specific allegiances implied by this; specific policy and interpersonal goals implied by this that aren’t really reflected in six-on-six grudge matches in a smattering of inexplicably depopulated civilian environments. There are roughly half-a-dozen villains associated with Talon, four or five independent villainous mercenaries, and everyone else is a would-be superhero. Why is most of the core roster of the world’s premier superhero team performing some kind of terror attack in London? Why is a woman who murdered a civil rights leader trying to stop them, with the help of two avowed anti-Omnic mercenaries and three Omnics? Why did a cryogenics researcher weaponize her tech and come along for the ride? Why are a dozen envoys from tech conglomerates, grassroots movements, and paramilitary defense forces throwing down over a Gazebo in a charming Greek resort? Fuck if I know. Fuck if the writers know!

So, to round it out, I think that there’s a structural difficulty for multiplayer shooters to stand for something, or advance a philosophy, or whatever. The smart ones embrace this by shielding themselves in ablative nihilism, preemptively deflecting criticism by painting the gameplay as hollow and barbaric, but fun! But Overwatch- Overwatch 2′s tagline is “Get back in the fight.” What Fight? Why? Against Who? Call Of Duty might be a horrific mouthpiece for militarism and imperialism, but when it valorizes the military, it’s at least picking a side! Overwatch is just so strange to me because it’s somehow got the worst of both worlds- it uses these heroic, aspirational language and visuals to hype up a gameplay loop that’s ultimately the exact same kind of cynical, aimless abattoir as the games that are smart enough to explicitly be about amoral paid killers!